Cameron Skelton signes with Waikato and the Chiefs.

Wills younger, yet bigger brother (137 kg and 2.05m), has signed with Waikato in the IPC and Chiefs in the super 15 championship. Interesting to see if that means he ends up playing for NZ. At the moment he qualifies for Samoa (parents or grandparents), NZ (birth) and Australia (grew up). I think if he lives here he'll lose his eligibility for Australia (which is based on residency). Could be a situation of brother vs brother.

Good news that. I wasn't on the Will Skelton bandwagon but I have to admit, I stuck one foot on when he did that offload for the final try last week. Hopefully he can perform and what an environment to learn in. SBW and Skelton smashing it up, ouch.

And the AB's say they dont poach   

GeordieFalcon wrote:And the AB's say they dont poach   

If he was born in NZ, doesn't this count as a counter-poach?   

He was poached and now he's being re-poached! So much poaching going on it's hard to keep it straight in my head...

Very true Notch...never of thought of it that way!

So the intial poach was by Australia...then NZ poached him back.

And the Aussies and AB's say they dont poach   

I wonder if Samoa will want him in future once he's earned a few AB caps before falling back off the radar  

Knowsit17 wrote:I wonder if Samoa will want him in future once he's earned a few AB caps before falling back off the radar  

Here's the irony. He's already played for the Samoan under 20 side. Once he's played in NZ he wont qualify for Australia (despite growing up there unless he completed the residency criteria starting anew or plays 7's). That's because he was born ion NZ and has Samoan heritage. He currently qualifies through residency (i.e. his family moved to Australia wen he was young), this is negated when he moves overseas.

I think this may be pretty moot, he wasn't very good at all in the U20, sub mostly and flopped around a lot.

Fingers crossed it's just a lack of maturity and power output that will get better with age.

I think Will had/has the same issues. The question is how much is he growing into his body and can he develop the aerobic, technical and speed factors to be useful.

Big questions, look at Ritchie Gray, he's developed into a fine athletic figure, but has nowhere near the power output to compete at the breakdown, and I know this is such a wierd thing to say with his size and stature but he's a little lightweight for international rugby.

Neutralee wrote:Big questions, look at Ritchie Gray, he's developed into a fine athletic figure, but has nowhere near the power output to compete at the breakdown, and I know this is such a wierd thing to say with his size and stature but he's a little lightweight for international rugby.

Agreed about Gray, for his size he isn't as powerful as he should probably be. Look at his brother johnny who is smaller in height but has a far bigger frame and is extremely powerful compared to Richie.

Out of all the Skeltons it looks as if it is the younger brother who is about 14 will be the biggest. Was pictured with some of the tahs forwards recently and was bigger than quite a few of them already.

Majestic83 wrote:

Neutralee wrote:Big questions, look at Ritchie Gray, he's developed into a fine athletic figure, but has nowhere near the power output to compete at the breakdown, and I know this is such a wierd thing to say with his size and stature but he's a little lightweight for international rugby.

Agreed about Gray, for his size he isn't as powerful as he should probably be. Look at his brother johnny who is smaller in height but has a far bigger frame and is extremely powerful compared to Richie.

Out of all the Skeltons it looks as if it is the younger brother who is about 14 will be the biggest. Was pictured with some of the tahs forwards recently and was bigger than quite a few of them already.

Jonny does look more compact, and probably holds a higher power output, but he has benefited from superior training techniques etc, whats Ritchie now 25? meaning he was being modelled as a junior 13 years or so ago, probably by someones dad, and then playing for an old school elite coach with a cig in his gob. Jonny is what 20? meaning 6/7 years ago he was being trained by a far better quality coach etc...

Yeah richie must be about 24/25 now.
He was brought into the "elite" system at a pretty young age though so should have had the same training benefits. Think Jonny just has the more solid frame.
The two of them will make a good 2nd row pairing with one being the more solid,powerful lock and the other being the aerial athletic lock.

Not sure that will be the same for the skeltons, although compared to where will was a year ago he has come on leaps and bounds especially with his fitness. Last season he could barely last 40 mins and he was knackered, know he could manage a full 80.

With regards to the Grays, I firmly beleive that the core development of a player is done between the age of 10 to 14 or so, and sadly in the UK this is run by eager but poor quality 'dad coaches'. So Ritchie hasn't had the same quality than Jonny did.

The Skeltons probably will never be able to play together, 1 now an Aussie int, the other in NZ and possibly looking to represent them etc.

As a big lad myself (6'5) I think taller lads develop their strength and power at a later time in their development than smaller lads, I beleive it's a levers and fibre type thing.